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Doctor Saves Baby’s Life; 30 Years Later, the Favor Is Returned

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“It’s amazing to watch [my patients] all grow up, but to have one come back in your life, on a day you really need it, that’s really incredible,” Dr. Michael Shannon says of being rescued from a car crash by a grown-up preemie that he saved long ago.

Thirty-plus years ago, San Clemente, Calif. doctor Michael Shannon worked tirelessly to keep a premature 3.2-pound baby alive after the boy was given a 50 percent chance of survival. Fast-forward to March 29, 2011 and that preemie, Chris Trokey, returned the favor. Now a firefighter-paramedic, Trokey helped rescue Shannon with the jaws-of-life from his burning SUV after the pediatrician was hit by a semi-truck on Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point, Calif.